Wynn Boston shuffles retail, is this a prelude to what may happen in Vegas?

Wynn gets pushback from highend retail and has to convert planned storefronts to convention space. With the glut of retail in Vegas especially high end retail, what if the contraction in Boston is a sign of what's to come in Vegas. I know Boston is not Vegas, but we've seen contraction on the low end stores for awhile now, every cit we live in is having stores close, high end can't be far off.

brassbonanza responded on Saturday, 18th March 2017

I'm not sure the comparison between Boston and Las Vegas is a good one. Wynn's problem in Boston is that high-end retail is highly concentrated on one area of the city, Back Bay, that is a long way from where they're building. The Everett/Boston line is a difficult one to get to from areas where their retail clientele would be coming, so they'd essentially be opening high-end retail out an island in an area that's more populated by working and middle class folks. These people surely would be interested in gambling, but not a new Chanel bag. They'd essentially be relying entirely on their whales to prop the retail instead of upper and upper-middle class residents of Boston. Also, there's already so much high-end retail here that it'd be very difficult to get any kind of exclusive location for a specific retailer, and they'd have an even more difficult time convincing a brand to move their sole Boston location out of Back Bay and into Everett.

Great article. Thanks.
Wynn is smart to make the changes before the place is finished. You're right, Boston is not Las Vegas. Last year, Vegas had 42.9 million visitors. Even though retail is suffering around the country, there's something about Vegas that makes people want to shop. How else could Gucci support three stores in Vegas: Bellagio, CityCenter and Forum Shops? Even though Wynncore is building a new retail center, Steve was smart enough to sell 49% of the project.

Here's the thing, for most casino resorts in the US outside of Vegas and A.C., retail isn't given much thought beyond a sundries shop. MGM does have a retail lineup at Beau Rivage and MGM National Harbor, but most of it is generically named stores as opposed to name brand outlets. This is Wynn's first US resort outside of Vegas since Beau Rivage and we all know that Steve Wynn always thinks big with his properties and a retail lineup is one of those elements in his properties since Bellagio. But Boston is no Vegas or Macau; the Boston Brahmin aren't going to trek to Everett to shop.

There are big problems across the retail space right now, high end to low end, with niches that have historically been resilient especially affected. High end definitely isn't immune to this. I work on Madison Avenue in Midtown and I haven't seen this many vacant storefronts since 2009. If this trend continues I'd expect some of Vegas' high end retail space to shift to other uses in the coming years.

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